


Active Sick Day

by Katie80



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-10
Updated: 2014-04-10
Packaged: 2018-01-18 22:23:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1444996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katie80/pseuds/Katie80
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor has promised Peri a nice, relaxing day at a health spa to help clear up her cold.  When has anything gone according to plan as far as the Doctor goes?  Especially this Doctor?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Active Sick Day

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The characters are not mine and I make no money from this.

“Doctor, do you even know where we’re going anymore?” Peri’s voice was not only incredibly stuffy but plaintive as well. “I was promised a health spa resort with eucalyptus saunas and… and all those other things you talked about. All I see right now is rain, wet forest and more rain. And it’s so cold…” She brought her hands to her face and sneezed into them several times. After the fit had ended, Peri sniffled miserably and pushed her hair out of her eyes. She’d run out of tissues about a half mile back and had been sniffling ever since.

The Doctor stopped, a sudden and rather uncalled for surge of sympathy for his ill companion rushing through him. However he quickly covered it up as he fished out the most garish handkerchief Peri had ever seen. “Here Peri, stop sniveling and blow your nose. We must be close now, we’ve been walking much longer than I remember last time. And I know I’ve landed in the right spot.”

“Oh, you always say that.” Peri took the handkerchief and blew her sore, red nose. A nose that was already raw from the head-cold she’d been nursing for the last four days. “I still don’t see why you couldn’t take me to a place and time where they could get rid of this cold for me.”

“I told you why before and you know how much I hate to repeat myself.” The Doctor put his hands in his pockets and looked around the rainforest thoughtfully, still trying to figure out where they were.

“Humor me, will you? Maybe you were telling me when I was coughing, sneezing or blowing my nose. You do tend to go on and on regardless of who’s listening to you.”

“Are you accusing me of prattling?” The Doctor tugged at his lapels and looked down at her with a pompous indignity. 

“You always prattle.” Her voice was tired, the retort falling flat.

“Always and never are very final, very powerful words. Don’t use them lightly.” He waggled a finger and Peri in chastisement.

“Who said I was using them lightly?” She muttered, stuffing the loud handkerchief into the pocket of her shorts. She sneezed into her hands and wiped them surreptitiously her backside, hoping the Doctor wouldn’t see and chide her for putting the handkerchief away too quickly.

He didn’t seem to notice. “You just need a good cup of tea and a rest.”

“Which you already promised and haven’t delivered yet.” She told him irritably. “And why don’t you answer my question?”

“I can’t take you to the future because the cures they have are not suited to someone who hasn’t been genetically enhanced, if you must know, again. Your physiology would reject it roundly and it would more than likely make you very, very ill, if not kill you. Happy?”

“Was that really so hard to tell me? So, what now?” She turned away and cupped her hands over her nose and mouth, sneezing again. She sniffled and pulled out her handkerchief and blew her nose, wincing.

“Now we keep going and find that spa. I know it has to be around here somewhere.” He started to mutter to himself, seeming to forget that Peri was there at all. Not that that wasn’t unusual or anything, but she would have liked some sort of courtesy while she was feeling ill.

“Doctor, can… do you mind if we just go back?” Peri wiped her nose on her dampening handkerchief. “Please.” She put it away, but had the unsettling feeling that she’d need it before too long. 

“What? Go back? Why in the world do you want to do that? I thought you wanted to go to this spa, having people wait on you hand and foot until you feel quite better and all that. It’s just ahead… somewhere. I took Jamie here when he…”

“Doctor please, we’ll be out here all day if you…” Peri raised a finger in a “one second” gesture and sneezed yet again. Before she could dig out her now rather useless handkerchief the Doctor handed her a fresh one, just as obscenely colored as the last.

“Are you actually telling me that you want to just go back to the TARDIS and… I don’t know, take cold medicine and tea or something?” The look on his face told her exactly how he felt about something as mundane as that.

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.” Peri agreed, bringing the cloth away from her face and crumpling it up in her hand. “I’m cold, sleepy and want to lie down.” She rubbed at her sore, itchy nose and sniffled, then shivered violently.

The Doctor opened his mouth to protest but closed it, seeing exactly how miserable his companion was, and he sighed deeply. “Very well, alright. Let’s get you back to the TARDIS all nice and cozy.” Grudgingly, the Doctor shrugged off his coat and put it around her shoulders.

“Aren’t you afraid you’ll catch cold too?” Peri pulled the coat tightly around herself. 

“Me?” The Doctor looked down at her as if she asked something indecent of him. “Catch a human cold? Don’t be silly, Perpugilliam, I’m a Time Lord. And while you may look like a Time Lord I certainly cannot catch a virus from you.”

“Alright already, you don’t have to be so smug about it. It was just a question.” Shaking her head, she followed him down the path they’d walked down. “So, what will you do? You know while I’m like this?”

“Oh I don’t know, I’ll think of something. There’s always work to be done on the TARDIS after all.”

“Of course if you could keep it running to start with you wouldn’t need to keep fixing it.” The jab against the TARDIS was only half hearted at best. Peri was too busy trying to keep up with the Doctor and trying not to sneeze, cough or do anything else that would hurt her already throbbing head.

“Here now, be nice about the poor Old Girl. She’s in better shape that you are at the moment.”

“Not fair, the TARDIS can’t catch colds.”

“You’d be surprised.” The Doctor muttered to himself, then looked around the rainforest.

“What does that mean? I’m not in the mood for your riddles.” She sniffled and rubbed her nose with the Doctor’s handkerchief. 

“Never mind, I’ll explain it to you when your addled brain can keep up better than it can now. Well, I mean…”

“Not now. You can say what you want to me about my intelligence later but right now I just… Never mind. Let’s just… do you know where you parked?”

“Of course I know that. What sort of imbecile do you take me for?”

“You know, you really don’t have to look at me so pointedly when you say ‘imbecile’.” She muttered into her handkerchief before blowing her nose.

“I was just saying…” The Doctor stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked down the footpath. “I honestly think it’s around here somewhere. I was certain of it. The spa, not the TARDIS. The TARDIS is that way of course.” He pointed to the right end of a fork before looking back the way they came. “But…”

“Doctor!” Peri cut herself off, coughing deeply into her steepled hands. The Doctor could hear a mild congestion rattling in her lungs that he hadn’t heard before and it troubled him far more than he was willing to let on. 

“Alright, back to the TARDIS with you now, no arguments my dear girl.” He waved her down the path with an imperious air.

She gaped at him, her mouth slightly open. “Who was arguing? I said I wanted…”

“We’ll be standing out in the rain all day if you insist on bickering with me. Come along Peri.”

After blowing her nose one more time, she set off after him. “And you really, really know where you’re going?”

“How many times do I have to tell you I certainly do? I just can’t think with all your interminable noise.” He raised an eyebrow as she started to sneeze, as if to prove his point. “Are you quite finished?”

“Yes.” Peri sighed heavily, not having the energy to drag up a witty comeback.

The Doctor heaved a sigh and took her hand, not unkindly. “We’re almost there, Peri, I promise you. Then you can go in and have a hot bath and take care of yourself.” He kept hold of her hand as he led her down the right fork of the footpath, grinning as the blue box loomed into view. “See, I told you I knew where we were going.” He glanced at her cheekily and pushed the door open, even standing aside to allow her to go first.

“I’ve never been so happy to see this hunk of junk before in my life.” Shrugging off the brilliantly colored coat, Peri handed it back to him before heading for her bathroom and a hot tub, ignoring the loud “hunk of junk!?” protest coming from the Doctor. She turned on the hot water, the TARDIS cooperating with her for once, and sank into a steamy tub filling with bubbles. She’d brought a magazine in with her and started to flip through it, sniffling as she did so. 

After an hour or so, Peri finally got out of the tub and pulled on a long, white, low cut dress that served very well as a bathrobe. She wasn’t sure where it came from (it certainly wasn’t anything she had brought on board) but it fit her very well, looked nice and, above all, was extremely comfortable. Cinching the pink band around her waist she headed for the console room, sneezing loudly as she walked down the hallway. She sniffled, wiping her nose on a piece of toilet paper she’d remembered to grab.

“Finally.” The Doctor’s voice echoed down the hallway, greeting her before he actually came into view. “I thought you’d been drowned. I was about to go hunting for you. I fancied a cup of tea.”

“Yes Doctor.” Peri’s reply was despondent as she turned back to go to the kitchen to fix him his tea. She’d wanted one herself, but before he said anything she had decided that she didn’t want it badly enough to actually make it.

“Here, where do you think you’re going? I tell you I made tea and you leave. That hardly seems grateful now does it?”

“You made tea?” She stepped into the room looking incredulous. Sure enough, he’d set up a small table and two chairs, such as a person would see on a patio, and on the table he had a good sized cast-iron pot simmering on a warmer with two cups set out. “I guess I never figured you knew how. At least, this you didn’t know how.”

“This me? This me?! if you’re so much better at it why don’t you go right back in there and make it fresh, Miss Smarty-pants?” He tugged at his lapels and scowled down at her.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry, I’m sure you fix terrific tea. Don’t get so melodramatic.” Settling down into the rather nice reclining patio chair, Peri poured out the tea for both of them and blew on hers, the steam tickling her sensitive nose, making her sneeze. 

She grabbed a napkin and blew her nose into it before the Doctor plucked it out of her hand, replacing it with a calm blue handkerchief. “This right here is why your nose is so very red and sore, Peri.” He waved the balled up napkin toward her. “It was bad enough with you using those paper tissues of yours, but this is far worse.” He tossed the napkin into a small wastebin with disdain.

“And you know how disgusting I think these things are.” She sighed heavily, refusing to tell him that he was right about them being softer on her nose, however. 

“Yes, yes I know. Let’s just agree to differ then, shall we?” He sipped his tea, watching her with a keen eye. Her eyes were drooping, her cheeks were flushed and she was holding her cup between her hands as if they were cold. “Once you’ve finished your tea, I would suggest you return to your room for a nap. You look as if you could use it.”

“I’m not a child; I don’t need to go take a nap.” She brought her tea to her lips and swallowed the hot liquid too quickly, burning her tongue.

“No, not a child at all. I’m only old enough to be your grandfather, several generations back.” He set down his drained cup and got to his feet. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m a busy man. This TARDIS isn’t going to repair her own navigational system, now is she?” He got up, stuffing his hands in his pockets, and sauntered to the center console. Peri couldn’t see what he was doing from her vantage point, but judging from the angry mutterings coming from the Doctor and the whirring protests the TARDIS gave in reply, she was pretty sure she didn’t want to know.

She would have gone to her room if she wasn’t so dead set on proving to the Doctor that she didn’t need to, but inspite of her earlier protests, she felt her eyes growing very heavy. The reclining chair was oddly comfortable and the tea had a soothing effect on her, even if it was rather overly sweet. Before long, Peri was dozing off, snoring lightly through a blocked nose.

The Doctor stopped his so-called “work” and returned to the table, then rested a cool hand on her warm forehead. He smiled to himself and tugged off his multicolored coat, draping it over her and pulling it up to her chin. “Sleep well, Perpugilliam.” Rising to his feet, the Doctor sat back down and poured himself another cup of tea. “Don’t suppose you’d mind lowering the lights, would you Old Girl? I think all repairs can wait until we’re all feeling better.” He grinned to himself and the lights dimmed obediently, and sipped his tea, kicking his feet back.


End file.
